


Marble Etching from a Dream

by WhiteSwanCake



Series: Scraps / Drabbles / Ficlets [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Cuddling, Cursed Memories, F/M, IDEK what to call this, angsty, it's pretty though, mehhhh, prose, rework
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 17:37:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13862595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteSwanCake/pseuds/WhiteSwanCake
Summary: Another old rework I’ve been debating flipping to CS.No names were used, so I added a few more indicators in, but it’s pretty obvious who is who.Captain Swan AU about curse-y things, IDK, I think it’s pretty.Previously titled "Marble Etching from a Dream" for reasons unknown and unremembered. It sticks. *shrug*





	Marble Etching from a Dream

Her mind was blank as he spoke, his words pulling her from dozing off in his warm arms. She cursed to herself for almost falling asleep with him in her apartment. She cursed herself for doing this, for letting him into her life, mind and body.

“I never knew when you started to love me, because you were a creature of legend. The true name has been lost to the ages now, but we called you Druë, and your kind lived in the woods, in the breeze, the grass… You were everything that grew under the sun, and everything that watched over those sleeping in the twilight." He smiled, at the memory. His face was lit, eyes wrinkling in the corners. 

"You said the first time you knew me differently than other creatures was when I was close to the ripples where our world’s met. I don’t have the memory, but you swear by it. You said I was with my Father who was a huntsman, and we were in his favorite place to trap- a grove of thick willows and thicket so enclosed it was like a green castle. I can imagine you sitting there, hair golden…” He trailed off, closing his eyes. He relaxed his body and a small, sad smile formed on his lips. 

“Although I never saw you in your truest form, seeing you once you were given this form from the Goddess was always enough.” His eyes opened with a flash of sea blue brightness. 

“You said I was sitting, singing a tune, and you were trying to make the willow branches blow just for me. I never noticed, you were imperceptible… A breeze or a certain slant of light. I came back and visited, convincing a friend not to carve into your trees with his spear head, chewing on sweet mint or a wild dandelion. You said you pined over me, prayed illicitly to be mortal so I could see you, so we could talk, so I could hold you.” He sighed, content. She found herself achingly wishing he was right, that this magic he spoke of could be real, that she wasn’t an orphan risking her career for a crazy person.

“The night your prayer was answered, the sunset was slow, your sisters and brothers ached to see the body the Mother Goddess made you. You said time wasn’t a measurement to your people, since eternity was a given. You said days were measured in sighs of virgins on their marriage bed, or the squall of a newborn, the migrations of birds or the teasing north wind. You couldn’t know how much time it took for her to make your body, all you knew is she used beauty from every corner of her worlds. I’d have to agree… She made you a mortal incarnate of the Druë, a human goddess. The stars fell to earth just to catch a glimpse of the tan skin the Mother borrowed from the dunes of Agrabah.”

“The sun mourned that it missed your ankles it had so tireless kissed for you. The winds spun silk for hair, and braided it with the bright glimmers of sun glinting off snow on the highest mountains peaks. The Autumn painters lent you their muted tones for your nipples, and the Spring painters gave you eyes the color of the first bud on a sapling. The moon shouted in triumph that she saw you slip into a skin softer than her cloudy bed. You stepped into your skin, and you wept." 

"I wept…?” She asked, and he pulled her closer, naked bodies touching skin to skin as he stroked her arms in lazy circles. 

“Aye. I’m sure it seems silly now, seeing you like this…” He looked at her with regret, and shook his head. He continued, the regret sliding out of his voice. “

You said you wept. In the village we didn’t know what was happening. We thought the gods were punishing us, we could hear your family crying out mournful goodbyes and we were afraid. The elder threw runes, and she sent a party to placate the Goddess. I was among that party. When we first stepped into the willow grove, you were there, weeping. The moon was whispering its final goodbyes, light slanting off your skin.” 

“You said it was overwhelming - the feeling all the new sensations of a world where you were not ethereal, you were grounded. The boy behind me cracked a twig, and your eyes were on us in a moment. Your eyes met mine, and I knew what you were.” He chuckled quietly. “Anyone with eyes could see. We all fell to our knees in reverence of the Mother’s creation. And you spoke, in your language. I will never forget it, it is indescribable." 

She felt a pull in her stomach, a twinge of fear and a subtle tickle in the back of her brain, something buried deep that was digging itself out of a grave.

Her voice was raspy, for some reason she felt close to crying. "Try, please try to describe it…”

“It sounded like every season, and all the in-between seasons. It sounded like the pall of thunder, and the crack of lightning, the crescendo of cicadas on a Summer night, the call of the first bird of Spring, and the whisper of the first snowflake of Winter. It was wind, and rays of sunshine, the fingers of moonlight, first frost… But you could hear the love in your voice. The ancient language of the Druë was slightly younger then time, but not by much and we understood every word. You told me you had been waiting for so long. We took you back to the village, and our Elder cried for days. We clothed you in the finest we had, and you spoke to me in my own tongue. You asked me to be privy to your own private eternity, to a true love for the ages. I happily agreed and we were married within days.” He buried his face in her hair.

“You were frail though, you didn’t understand mortal constraints for a long time. You wouldn’t eat, I remember-” She could feel the full smile breaking onto his lips against her neck, and he laughed at the memory. Her heart fluttered.

“You were furious at me for killing a rabbit for us. We built our home away from the village, right next to Willow grove, and you were sick from not eating. Stubborn and willful thing, you didn’t want to eat because of the fear of causing a creature or spirit pain. And here I come home with this rabbit, skinned and you were hysterical. It was months before you accepted the Mother’s hoop and that everything had a place.” He laughed again, nuzzling further into her neck and planting soft kisses. 

The familiarity of his body terrified her, but she found herself laughing slightly as that twinge grew bigger. He really believed this. She’d eaten a porterhouse just the other day, but here he was believing this. She shouldn’t have indulged his fantasies, and she swallowed hard, knowing this was beyond a mistake. She had to stop him, this make believe world of his. Even if every part of her wished she could believe it, too. 

He kissed her forehead softly.

“I know you don’t believe me, you’ve always been an open book to me, but we lived happily for years… I trapped and hunted, you grew herbs and worked earth magic. People would come by for a poultice, a spell, an enchantment or cure and you would just know what to pick and mix up. I was fascinated. You and I were madly in love. And then came Regina, and the other riders from the beyond our land.”

A memory from a nightmare bloomed in front of her eyes. Bruise colored smoke, screaming, sharp pain everywhere and then an electric charge through her body. And that name, Regina, where did she know it from?

“They took everything from us. I am so sorry I couldn’t protect you my love, I am so sorry I let her separate us. I tried to let you finish the spell, but the curse hit me and I’ve waited thousands of years for your forgiveness. Please, forgive me. I should have saved us all.” He cupped her face, kissing her softly.

“All of us?” She said, trying to keep her eyes open.

“Aye. We’ll find him, my love, I swear it. I found you, and we will find him.”

“Him?” she mumbled quietly into his chest, his heartbeat and steady breathing lulling her to sleep.

“Yes, my sweet Swan, we’ll find Henry. We’ll find our son.”

**Author's Note:**

> No beta or editor, if you like this, please let me know.  
> I'm working through old notes, journals, logs, sketchbooks, etc, so they'll be more of these kind of scrappy drabble bits around.   
> You can find me on tumblr at Courtorderedcake, to see more of my twisted soul.


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